Aftershock
by justjoy
Summary: Some questions are better left unanswered, and yet more are best unasked. Takagi deals with the aftermath of the Tokyo Tower serial bomber case, and learns several things along the way.


DISCLAIMER: Regrettable, but true.

Author's Note: And here I am with yet another sporadic update, in celebration of the fact that there is no school tomorrow (today?) - this one is set after the Tokyo Tower serial bomber case where Takagi and Conan are trapped in the elevator. This idea has probably been done to death already - I just couldn't help myself to adding yet another variation on it. I'm not really satisfied with how it turned out, but it's been sitting in my pile of drafts for months already and I can't even begin to figure out how to change it, so I decided to cut to the chase and post it instead. Hope you enjoy anyway!

* * *

**let there be fic!**

* * *

"Edogawa-kun?"

Miwako sent him a curious glance at the oddly formal gesture, but he steadfastly ignored it, keeping his stance relaxed as he focuses on Conan, waiting for a reaction. The detective had been avoiding him since the bomber case; it had been subtle, sure, but Wataru had noticed it all the same. Finally, he had managed to corner the detective when he'd come down to the station to give his statement along with the Detective Boys after witnessing yet another case.

_I mean no harm, _he repeated to himself mentally, hoping that his posture conveyed the general sentiment. "Could I speak to you for a minute?"

Wataru wondered what the detective saw, but apparently it was enough to convince him - Conan nodded, the sudden tension in his expression melting away as he turned to the group of children gathered around him. "Why don't you guys head over to Agasa-hakase's place first? I'll join you there later!"

Ayumi looked hesitant. "But... we don't mind waiting for you, Conan-kun!"

"It's all right, you guys can go on first, I don't know how long this will take, because it's something important, right? Isn't it, Takagi-keiji?" he asked brightly, with a pointed glance at Wataru, who nodded hurriedly.

"Ah - yes, of course it is, Conan-kun!" he added belatedly, turning to his fellow officer with a harried, sheepish look. "Ah - Sato-san, if you could bring them over?"

His partner nodded, not before giving him a pointed glance that informed him that he'd better explain himself later, otherwise he was going to get a generous dose of her wrath.

Wordlessly, Conan watched them leave, before following Wataru into the precinct break room.

He'd given much thought as to where he should hold this conversation - the interrogation rooms were obviously out, as were the offices. This was as close to neutral ground as they were going to get, considering that they _were_ already in a police station to begin with, and he didn't think that either of them would feel comfortable with discussing such topics in the openness of the common corridors.

Conan now stood with his hands in his pockets, almost a mirror of Wataru's own pose, seeming nonchalance that hid acute wariness.

There was one question, one very obvious question that he could ask of the small detective.

_I'll tell you... in the afterlife._

Thing was, he could also imagine the answer all too well.

_We're not dead yet, Takagi-keiji_, in that same unchildlike voice, the same one that had brought hardened, cold blooded murderers to their feet.

No, he wouldn't confront the detective about that, and not just because he'd never get a straight answer out of him.

Instead, he asked the next question on his mental list, one that he at least had some hope of getting an answer to. "That day in the tower… if I were to ask you whether the one you wanted to protect was Ran-san, how would you answer?"

Wataru caught Conan's quick glance around before he answered, clearly picking his words with care. "I would say that I care for her very much, Takagi-keiji."

He considered the answer for a moment. "And if I were to ask the same thing of Kudo-san?"

The small detective's reaction was just as expected - he tensed, eyes hard behind those wide lenses that Wataru had wondered about on more than one occasion.

"Shinichi-niichan would gladly die to protect Ran-neechan," he answered quietly, careful, deliberate emphasis on each honorific, piercingly blue stare fixed on Wataru. "Just as you would do for Sato-keiji. Am I right?"

And there it was again, the casual talk about death that little kids just _did not have_, not even ones like Conan who'd probably seen at least half as many bodies as Takagi himself had in his entire career put together.

"Yes, you're right. Of course you are. You can trust me to keep my word on that, meitantei-san," Wataru said slowly, unsurprised to find that he quite literally meant every word. "Come on, you should home before Ran-san gets worried. Do you want me to send you back?"

"Thanks for the offer, Takagi-keiji, but I wouldn't trouble you with that." Conan smiled up at him sincerely, the icy coldness in his expression melting away without a trace as he followed Wataru out of the break room. "I'll just head over to the hakase's place with Haibara."

Wataru started at that - hadn't the Detective Boys gone over with Miwako already? - before he noticed the small form of the blonde-haired girl waiting in one of the chairs just slightly down the hallway, smoothening her skirt out as she stood and walked over to them.

Conan turned back to wave at him, the innocent childishness firmly back on his features again. "Bye, Takagi-keiji, and thanks for everything!"

And Wataru waved back, wondering only for a moment about missing highschool detectives and the look he sometimes saw in those bespectacled eyes, something he now realised was shared by the blonde girl who walked alongside the small detective, a strange maturity tempered by intelligence and far more experience that one could ever gain in less than eight years of life.

So he allowed himself to wonder, for just that brief moment, before he decidedly shelved all such thoughts away, turning away from the flighty and impossible back to his sworn duty to protect this city of people from the gritty reality of crime, even if - or perhaps especially because - it also meant protecting these children whose existences raised more questions than they answered.

Takagi Wataru was a man of his word, after all.

* * *

**END**

* * *

2nd Author's Note: Like I said earlier, not among the better pieces I've written, but I figured that bad work is better than nothing at all. Do tell me what you think ^^ and thanks for reading!

3rd (and last!) Author's Note: As for my posting schedule - I'm terribly sorry to say this, but I honestly do not know when I'll be able to pick up a more regular pace again. Much I would love to spend more time on my writing, this is also a very important year for me academically, and the times when I'm both free and awake enough to write are fewer and farther between. As always, though, I will try to post whenever I can, although it'll probably be short pieces like this one more often than not =) any requests?


End file.
